


Evillious Undead

by Jilly (masterofthefictionalyard)



Category: Evillious Chronicles
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Gen, Zombie Apocalypse, dude basically every character will show up at some point
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-03
Updated: 2013-09-02
Packaged: 2017-12-25 11:20:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/952475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/masterofthefictionalyard/pseuds/Jilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Dr. Twiright, he was trying to make artificial life. Instead he created … These! He took people, took their genes … But he infected them somehow! And the artificial people, they’re infected, too! That’s as good of a word as any, I guess. Infected, changed, destroyed. They’re not even human anymore!" In a world overrun by zombies, can Elluka Clockworker find civilization? Or has sin taken over the world with the collapse of society? A Zombie Apocolypse!AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Evillious Undead

Elluka knew something was wrong the moment she came home.

For one thing, Kirill was watching television with Irina. Kirill _never_ watched television. He claimed it rotted your brain, and usually rolled his eyes and pulled out a paperback whenever Irina came over unannounced to plop herself in front of what he unfailingly called “the idiot box.”

But even if Kirill’s fixed attention to the screen wasn’t an immediate red flag, the pinched, concentrated look on his face would be. To Elluka, Kirill was a worn, often-read and well-loved book, and she knew all of his tells. Everything, from the way he bit the inside of his cheek to the shaky hand that went to push his glasses up on his nose, broadcasted his unease to her like a radio signal. She didn’t think she had ever seen him look so terrified.

“What’s going on?” Elluka tried, and failed, to keep her voice light.

“Shut up!” Irina’s voice was harsh and fearful. Elluka was used to the harshness and unoffended by it; the fear, on the other hand, was new.

“Come watch,” Kirill said, making room for her on the couch. “We don’t know what we’re seeing. Just … Come watch.”

Elluka sat down next to him, staring at the screen. A professional looking news woman stared back at her, speaking in a grave voice. “Residents are implored to stay in their homes until this crisis is over,” she informed the viewers. “We are not sure where the creatures come from, but it seems to have something to do with the Royal Institute. Again, these creatures are incredibly dangerous, and will attack if provoked. Stay in your homes. They do not seem to have the brain function necessary to open doors. _Stay in your homes._ We will be right back.”

Kirill had taken Elluka’s hand.

As a commercial for cleaning supplies played cheerily in the background, Elluka turned to her companions. “What was that? What creatures are they talking about?”

“We aren’t sure, love,” Kirill said, his voice trembling slightly. “They showed a video of them earlier, and --”

“Awful!” Irina interrupted, “I’ve never seen anything so horrible in my life! The idea that one of those things could be right outside the door …” She shuddered, lapsing into an uncharacteristic silence.

“This is all ridiculous.” Elluka spoke through numb lips, feeling like a woman in a dream. “I was just outside, on my way home from work. There were no creatures! Everything was fine!”

“If you saw one, you might not have recognized it,” Kirill explained. “They --”

“The news is back on! Let’s see if they show the video again.” Irina pointed to the television set, where the professional-looking woman had returned to her post.

“Hello, and welcome to Levianta News at 5. For those of you just joining us now, our major story today involves the sudden appearance of a race of bloodthirsty creatures, apparently escaped from the Royal Institute. We have on the phone a scientist at said Institute, who would prefer to remain anonymous. Sir, what can you tell us about the situation?”

A whispery voice answered. “Be careful! If he hears me talking to you, he’ll kill me!”

“Who?”

“Seth, Seth Twiright, the lead scientist on Project MA. Oh, God, he’s crazy! Don’t let him find me!”

“Sir, the casual viewer at home has no idea what you’re talking about. Does this ‘Project MA’ have anything to do with the strange creatures we’ve been seeing?”

“Something, anything, everything! Dr. Twiright, he was trying to make artificial life. Instead he created … These! He took people, took their genes … But he infected them somehow! And the artificial people, they’re infected, too! That’s as good of a word as any, I guess. Infected, changed, destroyed. They’re not even human anymore!”

“You’re saying that these creatures were once people?” The news woman’s face was pale.

“Yes … Yes. Some of them, at least. And that’s not all. When they escaped, I saw them leap on one of the scientists and tear his throat out! He was dead, had to have been dead, but --”

A distant voice interrupted the one on the phone. “Hey! What do you think you’re doing?”

“Oh, God! No, _please_! Don’t!” The sound of a gunshot resounded, unexpectedly loud. Elluka jumped.

“Sir? Sir?” The news woman’s panic seeped through the cracks in her professionality like a poisonous gas.. “Sir, are you okay? Dr. Twiright, is that you? Hello?”

The only answer was the click of the receiver.

There was silence for a long moment, as the news woman looked around the room, clearly unsure how to proceed. Finally, she faced the camera again. “It … appears that … The creatures have indeed come from the Royal Institute. What’s more, they were once human. We go again to the exclusive footage we have of one of the creatures at work … We warn you, what you’re about to see is very graphic. We will give a moment for young children and the faint of heart to leave the room.” There was a pause, and then the screen changed.

“There is is! That’s what we saw before!” Irina clutched at Kirill’s sleeve.

The video was shaky, clearly taken on someone’s cell phone. At first glance, it appeared to be a man bending over the remains of a dog, making low guttural noises. “Hey! Hey, man, what are you doing?” The camera holder began walking towards the man, causing the camera to shake slightly. “Get away from there!” The man spun around, and Elluka gasped before she could stop herself. Because the thing caught on camera was no man.

Even on such a low-quality camera, it was the most awful thing Elluka had ever seen. All of its skin, from its hollowed cheeks to its unnaturally furrowed brow, was smeared with blood. Where its skin showed through, it looked like damaged and ripped tissue paper. The worst part of it, however, was its eyes, which were completely red, as if the sockets had been filled with blood. As the cameraman stood, apparently frozen in shock, it growled and bared its teeth.

Bits of skin and fur clung to the sharp points on the end of them. The cameraman turned and fled.

The TV screen went back to the news woman, but before she could say anything, the screen went dark. Elluka turned to see Irina holding the remote in a shaky hand. “Irina, why did you do that?”

“I don’t want to see anymore! It’s all a lie!” Irina leapt to her feet, eyes wild. “This can’t be happening! It’s like the whole world is falling apart!”

“Irina --” Kirill started, standing, but Irina backed away slowly, shaking her head.

“You’ll see! It isn’t happening, it isn’t!” Before either Elluka or Kirill could react, she ran out the door, slamming it behind her.

“Irina!” Kirill ran to the door, flinging it open. He called after her again, eyes darting around to make sure people weren’t following. “Irina, wait!”

“Let her go,” Elluka said as Irina’s car started. “Irina’s an adult, Kirill. If she wants to roam around the streets, who are you to stop her?”

“She’s my sister, Elluka, and soon she’ll be your sister, too,” Kirill replied. “We can’t just let her go. There’s something awful happening out there.”

Elluka thought on that for a long moment, then sighed and stood. “I know.” She walked over to the man, placing a hand on his shoulder. “We’ll go together, okay?”

“Thank you, dear.” Relieved, Kirill planted a quick peck on the tip of her nose.

As they drove down the streets, Elluka was in shock. Not even an hour ago, she had driven through the city, and all had seemed calm. She had been slightly distracted, going over wedding plans in her head, but there was no way that she could have missed what she was seeing now.

People were screaming and rioting in the streets. Buildings were being broken into, stolen from, and quite a few were on fire. Fistfights and shouting matches seemed to be all around them. Most disturbingly of all, dead bodies littered the streets like leftover confetti.

“This is insanity,” Elluka breathed. Kirill kept silent, his knuckles white against the wheel.

They slowed to a stop at an intersection, where a group of people had gathered together in a prayer circle. One of them noticed the car and ran up to them, banging his fists on Kirill’s window. “The end is near! Repent! Repent and save your souls, because soon He will be upon us! He --”

Before the man could continue, a bloody hand reached out and grabbed him, snapping his neck like a twig.

The people in the prayer circle began to scream, scattering and pointing. For one wild moment, Elluka thought they were pointing to the car, and wanted to tell them that they weren’t going to hurt them. Then the moment passed, and she realized that they were actually pointing _behind_ the car.

A pack of the creatures were advancing, shambling along at a rapid pace. They were even more horrible in person. As they got closer, Elluka could see every burst blood vessel, could see their pores sweating a strange mixture of blood and something clear that left gummy streaks down their skin. Their eyes, which had seemed so foreign and awful on camera, seemed to actually be pulsing in their sockets.

“Kirill, drive.”

“B-But they people, they --”

“ _Drive_ , god _dammit_!”

Kirill slammed on the gas pedal. There was a sickening thump as they rolled over something or someone. That didn’t matter to Elluka. In that moment, all she cared about was putting as much distance as possible between them and those things.

When they were out of sight, Elluka exploded. “Did you see those things? God, they were big as life and twice as ugly!”

“A person,” Kirill said faintly, “I think I ran over their leg, I …”

“Something much worse is going to happen to them, and we won’t be the ones who caused it,” Elluka retorted coldly, “Did you see the one who grabbed that guy? It broke his neck with one hand!”

Kirill moaned. “We have to find Irina.”

Elluka looked to her clearly distressed fiancé and softened, putting her hand on his briefly. “I know.”

Elluka’s mind was reeling. Where could Irina had gone? Surely she came to the city, that’s where anyone would have gone to see what the damage was. It was a wonder that Irina had gotten so far ahead of them, but then again, she had been driving to beat the devil, and Kirill’s first time breaking the speed limit had been about five seconds ago.

Finally, she sighed. “Let’s drive around.”

Driving around, however, proved to be much more difficult than Elluka anticipated. The volume of dead bodies in the streets only increased, while the living people in the streets only decreased. When Kirill saw a woman with light pink hair and a red shirt laying face down in the streets, he slammed on the breaks. “Irina!”

Heart pounding in her chest, Elluka followed Kirill, who bent to turn the body over. Her head flopped on a broken neck like a dead fish. His face tightened … Then relaxed. “It’s not her.”

Elluka looked down at the woman. Her eyes were closed, and she was absolutely covered in blood. But Kirill was right. It was clearly not his sister. “We should keep looking.” She took his hand gently, and he looked to her.

“Yeah, you’re right, I --” He stopped at the sound of the hissing, coming from the ground. He and Elluka stared at each other for a moment, then looked at the body.

The woman on the ground was very clearly dead. The vicious bite marks all over her body and the awkward angle of her neck made that all too clear. But it was impossible to deny that the hissing was coming from her.

“What --” Elluka started, but then the woman opened her pulsing, red eyes.

Elluka screamed and stumbled away, Kirill in tow, but the woman was already on her feet, her head still cocked at that grotesquely unnatural angle. There was no human emotions left in her face. There was only a dull, animal hunger as she weaved back and forth, growling.

“Please,” Kirill whispered, and then she leapt forward with a feral screech.

Elluka winced backward, knowing it was too late to run, but a resounding bang cut the formerly dead woman’s war cry short. Opening her eyes, Elluka saw the woman, laying still at her feet. Half of her head was smeared across the pavement. Blood splattered across the front of Elluka's white dress shirt.

“Stay down, you bastard.” Irina sauntered forward, a smoking gun in one hand.

**Author's Note:**

> Well, hi, everyone! I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of Evillious Undead. I guess I better be up front about a few things now. First, I have quite a few chapters planned, but I still haven't planned to the end yet. I guess my point is, expect this to be long, okay? Next, I don't know which plot points will and will not be in here. For example, while Eve may be mentioned in passing, don't expect the entire Original Sin arc to play out ... I'm terribly sorry if this AU doesn't cover your favorite plot line! I'm working really hard to at least try to mention everyone, but there are a lot of characters. Well, if you enjoyed this chapter, it would be cool if you told me! That sort of thing keeps me going.


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